Reasoning of dissertation topic and competency of potential supervisor for admission onto joint LSU and TU doctoral studies in 2018

Area of research (title and code)
Field of research (title and code)
Topic of research
Institution / Lithuanian Sports University

Potential supervisor

Pedagogical and scientific degree / Name, surname / Academic position
PhD / Daniele Conte / Researcher

Short reasoning of proposed dissertation topic

Title
Investigating salivary markers as practical and valuable monitoring tools in professional basketball
Summary
Basketball is a court-based sport characterized by repeated high-intensity actions (Conte et al., 2015). Moreover, professional basketball athletes are usually involved in congested match schedule playing once or twice per week. Due to the numerous obligations and potential stressors faced during the season, it is fundamental the use of monitoring tools to maximize athletes’ physical performance while preventing injuries and overtraining symptoms. Session rating of perceived exertion (session-RPE) and heart rate are the most used monitoring tools to investigate internal training and game load, while little information is available on hormonal responses (Conte et al., in press, Scanlan et al., in press). The importance of the hypothalamic pituitary-adrenal/gonadal axis in the regulation of metabolism and homeostasis is well documented (Engelmann et al., 2004; Meeusen et al., 2013). Testosterone, cortisol, and testosterone-to-cortisol ratio have been proposed as indicators of the balance between anabolic and catabolic processes. Moreover, Salivary IgA (sIgA) is one of the most investigated markers of immunological involvement in physical activity as it might be related to the risk of upper respiratory tract infection (URTI) (Bishop et al., 2009), which is well known to negatively affect training performance (Pyne et al., 2001). Despite the possible relevance of hormonal measurements in monitoring basketball players' internal load (Schelling et al., 2015), no information is available on the relationship between hormonal status and internal and external training load, sleep patterns and their relationship with injuries and illnesses. Therefore the aims of this research proposal are: 1) to investigate the weekly changes in testosterone, cortisol and their ratio; 2) to verify the relationship between saliva markers and well-being scale, internal (session-RPE) and external (PlayerLoadTM) training load; 3) to investigate the relationship between salivary markers and their relationship with injuries and illnesses across a basketball season; 4) to verify the relationship between hormonal responses and sleep patterns across a basketball season. The results of this research project will provide useful information on whether salivary markers might be considered practical and valuable monitoring tools in professional basketball.
References
Bishop, N., & Gleeson, M. (2009). Acute and chronic effects of exercise on markers of mucosal immunity.Front Biosci. (Landmark Ed) (14) (2009) 4444–4456.
Conte, D., Favero, T. G., Lupo, C., Francioni, F. M., Capranica, L., & Tessitore, A. (2015). Time-motion analysis of Italian elite women's basketball games: Individual and team analyses.The Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research,29(1), 144-150.
Conte, D., Kolb, N., Scanlan, A. T., & Santolamazza, F. (2018). Monitoring training load and well-being during the in-season phase in NCAA Division I men’s basketball.International journal of sports physiology and performance, 1-25.
Engelmann, M., Landgraf, R., & Wotjak, C. T. (2004). The hypothalamic–neurohypophysial system regulates the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis under stress: an old concept revisited.Frontiers in neuroendocrinology,25(3-4), 132-149.
Meeusen, R., Duclos, M., Foster, C., Fry, A., Gleeson, M., Nieman, D.,Urhausen, A. (2013). Prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of the overtraining syndrome: joint consensus statement of the European College of Sport Science and the American College of Sports Medicine.Medicine and science in sports and exercise,45(1), 186-205.
Pyne, D. B., Mcdonald, W. A., Gleeson, M., Flanagan, A., Clancy, R. L., & Fricker, P. A. (2001). Mucosal immunity, respiratory illness, and competitive performance in elite swimmers.Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise,33(3), 348-353.
Scanlan, A. T., Fox, J. L., Poole, J. L., Conte, D., Milanović, Z., Lastella, M., & Dalbo, V. J. (2018). A comparison of traditional and modified Summated-Heart-Rate-Zones models to measure internal training load in basketball players.Measurement in Physical Education and Exercise Science, 1-7.
Schelling, X., Calleja-González, J., Torres-Ronda, L., & Terrados, N. (2015). Using testosterone and cortisol as biomarker for training individualization in elite basketball: a 4-year follow-up study.The Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research,29(2), 368-378.

Currently I am supervisor of ___0___ doctoral students.

Supervisor / / Daniele Conte

(signature) (Name, surname)

Date 12/03/2018